Silent Luxury

Andrea Guerra, CEO of Prada Group, said something in 2024 that reverberated through the entire luxury industry: "It's a huge mistake raising base prices too much. When we fail to tell a compelling story, that's a total failure." He was talking about handbags and ready-to-wear, where price increases between 2023 and 2025 accounted for roughly 80 percent of growth, while volume stagnated. Customers increasingly asked: What exactly am I paying for?

Why Jewellery Answers Before the Question Is Asked

With jewellery, this question arises differently. Material, craftsmanship, and cultural significance are the answer before the question is asked. Between 2025 and 2028, unit sales in jewellery are growing 4.1 percent annually – four times faster than clothing. Branded jewellery grew 8.3 percent per year between 2021 and 2024. The Altagamma study confirms: Jewellery is the most resilient luxury category, with investment-led purchases overtaking watches for the first time.

The First Bracelet at Eighteen

The resilience has an economic core that the numbers show precisely. Very Important Clients – VICs – generate 30 percent of total revenue in the jewellery market. The top 1 percent of customers account for 21 percent of spending, a concentration that has doubled over the past decade. At high-end brands, the average lifetime value of a VIC ranges between $200,000 and $400,000, spread over 15 to 20 years, averaging 12 to 18 transactions.

The first bracelet at eighteen. The ring at twenty-five. The earrings at thirty. These rhythms are known to jewellers worldwide, from Beijing to São Paulo, from Nairobi to Valencia. What has changed: 42 percent of women and 35 percent of men buy more jewellery for themselves today than two to three years ago. The McKinsey Report calls this phenomenon Self-Gifting. Women and men systematically build their own collections, deciding themselves which piece comes next, what meaning it carries, how long it stays.

The New Geography of Jewellery: From Imperial Ateliers to Modern Workshops

The geographic shift shows where jewellery works in 2026. In China, a former fisheries bureau employee generates more revenue with 24-karat gold and imperial Qing Dynasty craft techniques than 96-year-old legacy houses with 6,000 stores. In India, a Tata subsidiary translates regional wedding rituals across 400 stores and generates 85 percent of the conglomerate's revenue. In Mexico City, a French-Mexican house has been crafting pre-Columbian forms in silver and gold since 1942, winning the 2021 COUTURE Award for jewellery that translates Oaxacan textile embroidery into metal. In São Paulo, a former NASDAQ trader develops rings that use physics and anatomy as design, selling them to Kate Moss and in Miami. In Valencia, a manufacturer supplies 2,000 Spanish jewellers with 925 sterling silver. In Nairobi, a Nigerian-Kenyan designer hammers recycled brass into sculptural forms worn by Beyoncé.

Jewellery works differently than fashion in 2026 because jewellery can show where it comes from, who made it, which technique has been passed down for centuries, which material stores value. That's exactly what Andrea Guerra demanded. That's exactly what jewellery delivers.

China: Laopu Gold's 24-Karat Equation

When LVMH's Chairman Shops the Competition

In September 2025, Bernard Arnault walked into a Shanghai shopping mall and did something unexpected. He bypassed the Louis Vuitton flagship, ignored Dior, and spent thirty minutes inside Laopu Gold — a Chinese jewellery brand positioned a few doors from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Bloomberg reported he muttered words like "exquisite" and "interesting" while examining pieces. When the world's richest luxury executive shops your brand instead of his own, something has shifted.

By December, LVMH deputy CEO Stéphane Bianchi testified before French lawmakers that Chinese consumers showed "greater interest in local brands," adding that "some Chinese jewellery companies have seen an explosion in demand." He didn't name Laopu. He didn't need to. Richemont chairman Johann Rupert, when asked directly about Laopu in May, acknowledged: "We absolutely respect them and watch them."

For customers standing in Laopu's Beijing SKP store — where lines form regularly during holidays, where staff offer Evian water and Godiva chocolate while you wait — Arnault's visit confirmed what they already knew. The pieces they buy here — 24-karat gold gourds symbolizing prosperity, filigree pendants requiring 2,000 hours of imperial craft, vajra designs representing strength — hold a value that Western jewellery houses cannot replicate. Not because of marketing, but because of material purity, transparent pricing, and cultural codes rooted in dynasties rather than European ateliers.

Frost & Sullivan data shows 77.3% of Laopu customers also shop at Louis Vuitton, Hermès, or Cartier. They aren't choosing one over the other. They're adding Laopu to their portfolio — Western luxury for global signaling, Chinese craft for cultural anchoring and wealth preservation.

From Fisheries Bureau to "Hermès of Gold"

Xu Gaoming, a former fisheries bureau employee, founded Laopu Gold in 2009 in Beijing with a thesis that contradicted all market logic at the time: sell jewellery made of pure gold, 24 karat, at fixed prices instead of by weight. Fifteen years later, the brand is called the "Hermès of Gold" in China, operates only 33 stores, and has overtaken Chow Tai Fook – 96 years old, over 6,000 stores – as China's most valuable jeweller.

The June 2024 IPO on the Hong Kong Exchange raised HKD 700 million, the stock rose 80 percent on the first day, has increased twentyfold since. Revenue in 2024 stands at 8.5 billion yuan, 167 percent more than the previous year, gross margin consistently above 40 percent. By comparison: Richemont reported minus 23 percent for Greater China in the year to March 2025.

Laopu works exclusively with pure gold, 24 karat. Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany, Cartier use 18 karat. For Chinese buyers, 18 karat appears as dilution. Pure gold can be understood as an investment, the price is transparent, the purity measurable, the function as a safe-haven asset culturally anchored across generations.

The Imperial Craft Lineage: Filigree and Inlay

The craftsmanship comes from the Beijing Gongmei Filigree Factory, whose production line can be traced back to the imperial ateliers of the Qing Dynasty. Two techniques, officially recognized as China's national intangible cultural heritage: Filigree (花丝, huāsī) – drawing and weaving gold wires between 0.1 and 0.3 millimeters in diameter into three-dimensional structures. Inlay (镶嵌, xiāngqiàn) – setting gemstones without visible prongs, the stone sits directly in the filigree structure.

A pendant with complex work takes 2,000 hours. The gold wires are individually drawn, bent, soldered. A craftsman who masters filigree has at least ten years of training behind him. The motifs – dragons with scales made of individual filigree elements, phoenixes with layered wire feathers, cloud patterns across three dimensions – draw on millennia of Chinese iconography.

Fixed Prices, Not Gold by Weight

Laopu sells at fixed prices. A simple ring costs 5,080 yuan ($720), elaborate pendants reach 85,000 yuan ($12,000). Most pieces range between 10,000 and 50,000 yuan. By comparison: Old chains like Chow Tai Fook sell by weight – gold price per gram plus flat labor costs. Laopu's pricing strategy allows selling craftsmanship as independent value.

Jolin Guan, Associate Partner at Prophet Shanghai: "While the industry still measures value by carat weight and store counts, Laopu Gold's 'Palace Museum-replica gold urn' sent a seismic message: gold's ultimate value transcends raw material; it's measured by civilisations it carries." Customers pay over 30 percent craftsmanship premium for objects that translate filigree techniques from imperial Ming and Qing Dynasty workshops into the present while simultaneously functioning as investments whose purity remains measurable.

The Customer Who Wants Both: Luxury and Cultural Anchoring

The target group is women between 30 and 40, a generation that bought Chanel bags and Gucci loafers in their twenties. Traditional Chinese gold jewellery seemed tǔ to them – old-fashioned, provincial. Laopu gives them both: luxury good and cultural anchoring. 77 percent of Laopu customers also buy from Hermès, Tiffany, Cartier, and Bulgari. Cartier for the evening. Laopu for the day, work, family.

The McKinsey Report shows: 82 percent of Chinese buyers cite Brand Significance as decisive. Brands must be able to show where they come from, which tradition they embody, which craft lines they maintain. Laopu delivers this verifiability in every detail – from the 24-karat stamp to the documented workshop line from the Qing Dynasty.

India: When Trust Becomes Measurable

What works in China through imperial craft tradition, India solves through regional authenticity and technical transparency. Tanishq, founded in 1994 by Titan Company, part of the Tata Group, controls over 8 percent of the Indian jewellery market, generates 85 percent of the $29 billion Titan Company's revenue, operates 400 stores in India, expanded to Dubai (2020), New Jersey and Texas (2023), Singapore (2023), acquired CaratLane completely in 2023.

The Karatmeter Innovation: Making Trust Visible

The breakthrough came in 1995 through an innovation that made trust measurable. The Karatmeter – a device for immediate gold quality testing – exposed the systematic fraud practice of Indian jewellers who promised 22-karat gold but delivered 19 or 18. Tanishq's "Impure-to-Pure" program offered customers to exchange their inferior pieces for genuine 22-karat jewellery. Free. Three karats gifted. The campaign converted skeptics into regular customers. Tanishq has been profitable since fiscal year 2000-2001.

Four Regional Techniques, One National Brand

The craftsmanship varies radically from state to state. The Rivaah line, which accounts for 20 percent of revenue, shows regionally differentiated wedding jewellery: Temple Jewelry from Tamil Nadu with divine motifs and granulation – hundreds of tiny gold beads are melted onto surfaces, creating three-dimensional textures. The goldsmith heats each bead individually with a fine soldering iron, places it, presses it, waits until the connection is firm. A necklace with complete granulation work takes three to four weeks.

Kundan from Rajasthan – uncut gemstones set in pure gold, 24 karat, no alloy. The setting itself becomes decoration, each prong a miniaturized artwork. The goldsmith forms thin gold foils, wraps them around the stone, presses them into shape, polishes the surface until the stone looks ingrown.

Meenakari enamel work – colored glass melted onto gold at 800 degrees. Applied layer by layer, fired between each layer, until luminous blues, greens, and reds emerge. A technique perfected in Jaipur since the 16th century. The enameller applies the glass paste with fine brushes, places the piece in the oven, monitors the temperature, takes it out, cools it, applies the next layer.

Polki diamonds – uncut, unpolished, set in their natural form. Mughal emperors preferred this technique because uncut stones refract light differently than faceted ones, softer, more diffuse.

From Tamil Nadu to New Jersey: The Diaspora Strategy

Wedding jewellery in India is passed down, grandmother to mother to daughter. Each piece carries the names of the women who wore it. Tanishq's strategy: inscribe itself in this practice, translate regionally precisely, execute craftwise so that each piece anchors the wearer in her community, her family, her tradition. The sub-brand Mia addresses working women with lighter pieces, Aveer men with contemporary designs. But Rivaah remains the cultural core. The international expansion addresses the Indian diaspora – people living in New Jersey or Texas wearing jewellery that shows which state they come from, which rituals their family maintains.

Latin America: When Pre-Columbian Form Language Meets European Craftsmanship

From Asia's craft traditions, the line leads to Latin America, where a different fusion occurs – pre-Columbian forms meet European goldsmithing techniques, indigenous textile patterns are translated into metal, Brazilian gemstones receive their own cuts.

Mexico: TANE and the Aztec Casting Tradition

In Mexico City, in an atelier in Colonia Juarez, TANE has been producing jewellery that translates Mexican culture into silver and gold since 1942. The famous TANE Roosters – roosters with ruby eyes, inspired by palenques, the cockfighting arenas – were designed in 1961. They combine pre-Columbian form language with European goldsmithing: the fusion of indigenous traditions with Spanish colonial techniques.

Refugees Who Built a Mexican Jewellery House

TANE was founded by Sergio and Natalia Leites, two French art collectors who fled Paris before World War II in 1940. The name comes from "tannerie" – originally they ran a leather boutique. In 1953 they switched to jewellery, inspired by pre-Columbian art from Mexican museums.

The Alquimística workshop they founded then still produces using the same methods today: Lost-Wax Casting according to Aztec tradition – wax models are embedded in clay, burned out, cast with molten silver or gold. Combined with European ciselage: the surface is hand-engraved, punched, textured. The goldsmith works with gravers, punches, fine hammers. Each feather of a rooster, each scale of a fish is individually formed. A complex Rooster takes 80 to 120 work hours.

Lost-Wax Casting Meets European Ciselage

Son Pedro Leites took over in 1974. Creative Director Ricardo Domingo, trained at the Massana School in Barcelona, leads the design line today, works with the craftsmen who have been trained in the Alquimística for decades. Fodor's writes about TANE: "a mine of perhaps the best silverwork in Mexico." The comparison goes: "TANE is to Mexico what Georg Jensen is to Denmark."

BORDADOS: When Oaxacan Embroidery Becomes Silver

In 2021, TANE won the COUTURE Design Award Best in Silver for the BORDADOS collection – a collaboration with embroidery craftswomen from Oaxaca. The women weave flexible silver meshes using the same techniques with which they embroider traditional Huipil blouses. They translate textile patterns into metal, each knot set by hand, each connection hand-soldered. The result: necklaces and bracelets that move like fabric, fall softly, adapt to the body. The women own the legal and intellectual authorship, receive design royalties, are listed as co-creators. The Isla Mujeres collection follows the same logic: local women's cooperative, hand-woven silver using fishing net techniques, design royalties, legal authorship.

TANE has been on FARFETCH since 2022, expanding in the USA. The philosophy: three worlds – Jewelry, Objet d'Art, Casa TANE – all made with the same artisanal processes, everything handmade in their own Mexican workshops, all pieces signed, numbered, documented.

Brazil: H.Stern and Vertical Gemstone Competence

The line from Mexico to Brazil shows how differently Latin America thinks about jewellery. While TANE works through pre-Columbian iconography and textile translations, Brazil builds on geological competence and vertical integration. In Brazil, H.Stern pursues a different logic. Founded in 1945 by Hans Stern – born in 1922 in Essen, fled with his parents from the Nazi regime to Rio de Janeiro in 1939. Stern positioned Brazil as the "land of colored gemstones," built a vertical business model: from raw stone to finished jewellery.

From Horseback Mine Visits to 150 Global Stores

At 17, Stern worked for a gemstone exporter, visited mines in Minas Gerais on horseback, built relationships with miners. He learned what tourmalines, aquamarines, amethysts, emeralds look like in raw state, which geological formations produce them. In 1945, at 22, he founded H.Stern. The breakthrough came in 1949 when Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza bought an aquamarine necklace for $20,000.

The headquarters in Rio controls all craft production, operates its own cutting facility – one of the few jewellers worldwide cutting colored gemstones in-house. H.Stern's lapidaries develop cuts specifically for Brazilian gemstones. Brazilian Paraíba tourmaline, whose neon blue comes from copper and manganese inclusions, is cut differently than Colombian emerald because the light refraction differs.

The In-House Lapidary: Cutting Specifically for Brazilian Stones

The lapidary places the rough stone, calculates the angles, grinds facet by facet, polishes the surface, checks brilliance, corrects. H.Stern documents each stone photographically before and after cutting, archives the data since 1945. The museum in the flagship boutique in Ipanema shows the history, the collection, the geological maps, the tools.

80 Years of Documented Provenance

Hans Stern died in 2007 at 85. Today H.Stern is family-run, 150 stores in Latin America, USA, Europe, Asia. Brazil now supplies nearly half of the world's available colored gemstones.

Brazil: Ara Vartanian and the Physics of Wearing

From this geological base, another Brazilian developed an entirely different jewellery logic – one that doesn't start with material or tradition, but with the physics of wearing. Ara Vartanian, born in Beirut in 1975, came to São Paulo at age one.

From NASDAQ Trading Floor to São Paulo Atelier

His father became a prominent diamond and gemstone supplier in Brazil, his mother a jewellery designer. Vartanian studied economics in Boston, worked four years as a NASDAQ trader in New York, returned in 2000. In 2002 he began signing his own jewellery. Immediate success, international sales the same year.

Engineering Solutions: Two-Finger Rings and Hook-Earrings

His innovations start with the physics of wearing. The Two-Finger Rings place the stone at the lowest point between the fingers – lower center of gravity, they don't rotate. The construction requires precise calculation of leverage ratios, each rail must adapt to the finger joint without exerting pressure. The Hook-Earrings follow the anatomy of the earlobe, distribute weight over a curved hook behind the ear, instead of concentrating all weight at the hole. Enable heavier stones without the ear suffering.

The inverted diamonds show the stone from behind – "pointy, dangerous tip, incredibly graphic shape," as Vartanian says. The setting is inverted, the stone sits with the tip outward, the pavilion side is visible, creates a completely different light refraction. British Vogue wrote in 2019: "one-of-a-kind statement jewels linking contemporary boldness with supreme comfort, obsessive about detail." Forbes: "Big rocks, with rock chick edge."

"O Futuro é Brilhante": Ethics Meets Miami Expansion

Everything is made in the studio in São Paulo. Vartanian works with a small team of Brazilian goldsmiths, each setting hand-modeled, cast, reworked, polished. In 2017 he collaborated with Kate Moss, a collection inspired by English legends. In 2018 he launched "O Futuro é Brilhante" (The Future is Brilliant) for ethical sourcing, environmental protection, fair working conditions. In 2023, Vartanian opened his first US store in Miami, Bal Harbour Shops. 92 square meters, designed by Estudio Tupi, Nogueira and Freijó wood, hand-embroidered De Gournay wallpapers, crystal quartz walls.

Spain: Salvatore Plata and the Renaissance of Silver

From Vartanian's experiments with diamonds and gold, the line leads to Valencia, where silver is experiencing a renaissance. Salvatore Plata, founded in 1994 by Salvador Pellicer, works exclusively with 925 sterling silver – a conscious concentration on a material long considered the "little brother" of gold. 60 years of family experience are embedded in the brand, the father was a jewellery seller in Valencia in the 1950s, knew every jeweller in the city, understood what customers sought, what they wore, what they passed on.

60 Years of Family Silver Competence

925 sterling silver – the alloy of 92.5 percent pure silver and 7.5 percent copper – has been the standard for centuries because pure silver would be too soft for jewellery. The 7.5 percent copper provides hardness, enables filigree work, maintains shape over decades. Salvatore Plata casts the silver in Valencia, hand-finishes, plates with rhodium or gold against tarnishing. Each piece bears hallmarks, is tested for toxic metals, the registered hallmark 2.095.446 guarantees the alloy.

Why Silver Prices Rose 60% Since 2020

Silver prices have risen over 60 percent since 2020, from under $15 per ounce to over $24 at the end of 2024. Nombulelo Makombe, Jewelry Buyer at Liberty London: "As gold prices continue to rise, we're seeing a renewed appreciation for bold, sculptural silver jewellery. Designers are using silver to experiment with form and scale, offering pieces that feel expressive and impactful while remaining more accessible." Ruth Aymer Marten, Creative Director of Aymer Maria, confirms: rising gold price shifts demand to silver as an independent material decision, not as a compromise.

Natural stones – aquamarine, citrine, tourmaline, amethyst – are hand-set. The goldsmith forms each prong individually, bends it, files it, sets the stone, checks the fit, polishes the surface. The collections – Kaleido, Héritière, Caramel, Rouge – show different setting techniques, different surface treatments.

Silken Code: When Silver Moves Like Fabric

The Silken Code collection takes a different path. Here silver is treated like textile. Thin silver chains are woven, braided, intertwined, condensed into three-dimensional structures that move like fabric. A bracelet from the Silken Code line consists of hundreds of individual silver threads, each hand-soldered, each connection individually checked. The result: jewellery pieces that fall softly, adapt to the wrist, capture and scatter light like silk, although made of metal. The surface shimmers, reflects differently depending on movement, creates an effect that oscillates between textile sheen and metallic coolness.

Silver allows larger volumes than gold because it's lighter. A solid silver ring sits differently on the finger than a solid gold ring – less weight, more presence. Silver reflects light cooler than gold, works differently with skin, colors, textiles. Salvatore Plata shows: silver is not a compromise solution. Silver is an independent material decision with its own craft logic, its own aesthetic, its own way of wearing. Two collections per year, each over 1,000 models, all made in Valencia, all with the same craft precision as gold, all documented, stamped, certified.

Kamerun: Adele Dejak and Hammered Brass

From Europe's infrastructure, the final line leads to Africa, where jewellery functions without these established structures – through direct craft production, international visibility through celebrity placements, and an aesthetic that consciously works against industrial polish. Adele Dejak, born in Nigeria, lives in Nairobi, produces by hand in her atelier. Recycled brass, hammered sculptural forms. The technique is direct: brass is heated, shaped with hammers. Each strike leaves a dent, a texture. No industrial polish. The surface shows the work.

Direct Hammering: 12 Hours Per Bracelet

A bracelet takes 12 to 15 hours. Dejak heats the brass in the oven, places it on the anvil, hammers the form, heats it again, hammers further. The material becomes soft, hard, soft, hard. The form emerges slowly. The results are bracelets that look like Bronze Age objects, earrings that could be archaeological finds.

"Baraka": Warrior Women and Swahili Blessings

The 2024 "Baraka" collection shows warrior women stories, gold-bronze as signature, Swahili blessings hammered into the surface, centuries-old symbols translated into modern forms. Beyoncé wore Dejak's jewellery in "Black Is King," Burna Boy's mother as well. The aesthetic: vibrant Afrocentric, minimalist black-and-white contrasts meet bronze and gold, large sculptural forms.

50 Million New Consumers by 2030

Altagamma explicitly names Africa as a growth market – 50 million additional upper-middle-class consumers by 2030 in emerging markets, Africa included. Dejak's work shows how this market functions without established retail structures: direct craftsmanship, international placement, cultural authenticity.

Why Jewellery Delivers What Andrea Guerra Demanded in 2026

Andrea Guerra's warning – "when we fail to tell a compelling story, that's a total failure" – hits jewellery differently because material, craftsmanship, and origin are the story. A woman who understands filigree techniques, who sees that Kundan settings need no prongs, who knows how Meenakari enamel is applied, who understands that Laopu gold functions as investment and materializes 2,000 years of craft tradition – this woman no longer asks the price question.

The VIC concentration shows: jewellery creates loyalty over decades. The 82 percent Brand Significance in China shows: brands win when they can show where they come from, which tradition they embody, which craft lines they maintain. Laopu's 24-karat gold and imperial filigree work. Tanishq's regional Temple Jewelry and Kundan settings. TANE's Lost-Wax Casting according to Aztec tradition. H.Stern's own cutting facility for Brazilian gemstones. Ara Vartanian's body-based innovations. Salvatore Plata's silver renaissance. Adele Dejak's hammered brass.

Lab-grown diamonds and sculptural silver show: material becomes available, craftsmanship remains the anchor. The geographic shift – Latin America, India, Africa as production and demand centers – shows: jewellery is local competence that functions globally.

The first bracelet at eighteen. The ring at twenty-five. The earrings at thirty. At high-end brands, the average lifetime value of a VIC ranges between $200,000 and $400,000. These numbers work in 2026 because jewellery can show what the price stands for. That's exactly the compelling story Andrea Guerra demands. That's exactly what jewellery delivers.